


No More

by NyxEternal



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Unrequited Love, purifiers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 19:16:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12087600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEternal/pseuds/NyxEternal
Summary: A quick one-shot of Autumn sacrificing herself for a love she doesn't believe she deserves.





	No More

His hand doesn’t quite fit hers, but she doesn’t care. In the bitterness and cold of this world, his hand reminds her of warmth in front of a fire. The touch makes her heart race, leaping into her throat and she’s so sick she can taste it.

Ash falls like snow in the chaos, the burning world punctuated by the smell of sulfur and brimstone.

She remembers running before, bleeding from fresh wounds and barely able to make it. Back then, she was able to hide on the car of a train, unnoticed until it arrived in a city she calls home. There are no train cars here. Just Kurt.

Her salvation, her hero, but to what extent? She was just running again. Running. _Running_. She’s so tired of running.

She releases his hand and he looks back at her. It is all she can do not to laugh. So much like Orpheus leading Eurydice.

_Oh, sweet love, you looked back._

“Go, I’ll catch up,” she says, a lie in the back of her mind. Bright gold eyes watch her, face scrunched in concern. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

“Autumn, are you sure?” He asks, turning to face her. His tail flicks into her line of sight, but only briefly. She offers him a smile and he takes her hands in his. Were his hands always so much bigger?

“I’ve got this.”

“I’m not leaving you behind.”

“You aren’t.” Autumn says, confident and beaming. “I’ll catch up with you, just don’t look back.”

Orpheus.

“Promise me,” he almost begs. He sounds so desperate it almost breaks her heart. “No more death, Autumn. No one else.”

“Just the bad guys, pretty boy blue,” she teases as she presses her forehead to his. _Do you know how much I wish I could love you?_ “Get to safety.”

“But—“

“But nothing. These bastards are my kind of fight.” She kisses his forehead, despite how bad she wishes she could give him a real kiss. “…When I get back to you, I’ll tell you about the dream I had.”

He hesitates, hands holding hers. Have they ever been this close before? Her heart is racing and for a moment, she doesn’t see the world on fire.

She sees a starlight night, under a magnolia tree. Shooting stars dance across the blanket of the night sky and gentle music hums through the air. Safe from this purgatory they live in, safe from the dangers of the world.

And instantly, it is gone when she hears another explosion behind her.

“I have to go,” she whispers, closing her eyes. She can’t look at him. “I’ll take care of these guys. It’ll be over soon.”

“Autumn—“

“I don’t have the time, Kurt.” His name is heavy to her. A weight she carries in her chest. “We’ll talk when I get back.”

And she steps away from him, pretending not to notice how his hand reaches for her when she turns away.

“Don’t look back!”

She supposes the rule goes for both of them. She doesn’t look, doesn’t see if he looks back as she marches back to their burning home. Marches to the men with guns and explosives. To the men who would see their entire kind slaughtered.

She takes a deep breath as they come into view, crosses on their uniforms and guns in their hands. Men of the cloth, she would’ve told herself before meeting Kurt. Holy men on their holy war in a holy crusade against sins against humanity. Against criminals like her.

No, they were not holy men. She would never let herself see them as people on the same level with Kurt. They were the monsters, not her. He taught her that.

“For you, I’ll burn,” she whispers as she closes her eyes. She gives in to her powers, focusing hard on the men and women in front of her. Chains do not wrap around them like normal, no.

Instead, she constructs a true hellscape. Echoes of screams surround them, their own, piercing their minds as begging for help. Flames swallow their bodies, or so their minds believe. Barbed whips rip at unprotected flesh ripping apart fabric to tear at the skin beneath.

“Memento Mori.” The words come as a command. In her mind, she can see him. The creature she created as a weapon. Black and white, the opposite of all that she is, and truly monstrous. Slender and tall, with claws and empty eyes.

He springs into action and she is _smiling_ until it is all too much. She bought them time. She bought her friends time. She bought _Kurt_ time.

Her body falls slack, weak to the ground. All around her she hears shouting, screaming, and the crackling of flames. Gunshots pierce the chaotic air and then there is deafening silence. There is nothing.

There is nothing for her, except for one voice.

“No more death, Autumn.”


End file.
